Why, Thomas, Why? (Peace Talks Spoilers)

[Bad Alias]

Or a young Thomas saw Justin at Raith's house after Margaret left. They were supposedly contemporaries, and there are theories that they were all plotting together.  No reason to think that came to a stop after Margaret left.

Or before Margaret left and after Thomas was born.

[Grifter]

He would have been five or younger at that point.  I don't know about other people, but I don't think I'd recognize someone I saw a few times before I was six.  But maybe.

[Bacail]

I'm pretty sure Justine made him do it. With the proviso that I'm not certain if what we see is really Justine and that I don't know if was some form of mind control or just blackmail. Thomas keeps saying her name as a warning.

Im pretty sure She is N-fected. 

[BrainFireBob]

I think she wants "out" to protect her baby.

The true love angle does tend to make readers sympathetic, but this is a very damaged woman. The mental health issues, falling in love with a born predator; living among the same, the entire nature of their relationship (she brings in other people so she and Thomas can be together, that's a bit predatory on its own as presented)- she is not necessarily a nice woman.

The open question has always been, what does she know? The the Raiths are killers and how? That's probably a given; being Lara's secretary means she probably has to make "arrangements." A twist that may be out there- she doesn't how they become vampires or how it's passed on. She may think it's something done to them, instead of something that happens on its own unless prevented by circumstance. So, you could plausibly have a scenario where she doesn't "blame" Thomas for what he is- but thinks that if she escapes with the baby, it can be "normal."

[Vairelome]

I'm not saying that the True Love angle makes Justine a saint, or definitely inclined to make the best choices, but practically by definition, it must make her loyal to Thomas.  I'll accept theories where she was genuinely deceived, but not ones where she willingly betrayed Thomas.  She's been quite consistently devoted to him.

[BrainFireBob]

I'm not saying that the True Love angle makes Justine a saint, or definitely inclined to make the best choices, but practically by definition, it must make her loyal to Thomas.  I'll accept theories where she was genuinely deceived, but not ones where she willingly betrayed Thomas.  She's been quite consistently devoted to him.

Mother's love versus true love, it's an angle I personally would accept.

[Vairelome]

Mother's love versus true love, it's an angle I personally would accept.

I most definitely would not.  Especially with zero evidence.

The closest in-series parallel would be Susan hiding Maggie from Harry, and 1) that was presented as a massive betrayal, and 2) Susan still didn't try to get Harry killed.

[Bad Alias]

When was the last time that Justine was shown to have True Love protection? Turn Coat?

[Grifter]

When was the last time that Justine was shown to have True Love protection? Turn Coat?

She apparently had it in the epilogue of Ghost Story, where she had to strategically break it by bringing in a third wheel to their party. The idea was to have it turn on and off again every time they got together, but we never got confirmation if it worked that way or not.  For all we know, it was on after the time Justine got pregnant, but off again after a session with Evanna, and he can't get it back for Justine because it would require sex feeding, which might complicate the pregnancy and risk Justine.

[Bad Alias]

That's right. Also, for all we know, it only attached that one time and as soon as it was broken, it was gone. Relationships change. Thomas and Justine's already did once.

[Vairelome]

But none of that is relevant to the fundamentals of Thomas and Justine's relationship.  Yes, at one time, Justine was protected from Raiths by the power of True Love.  That was an outgrowth of the existing connection between Thomas and Justine, plus some mystically-significant qualifications.  The mystic protection was broken in the GS epilogue (either temporarily, as hoped for, or permanently), but there's been no evidence that this shifted their fundamental devotion to each other.  Thomas lives and breathes for Justine, and the fact that she had True Love protections is proof that it was reciprocated on her part.

Yes, their relationship could have downgraded to the point that Justine no longer loves Thomas, and would willingly betray him to his death.  There is no evidence that this actually happened, however.  We're back in "Harry is secretly a serial killer" territory.

[Bad Alias]

If Justine doesn't have true love protection after GS, it's because their fundamental devotion to each other has shifted. BR was a decade before PT.

We're told Harry is going to be betrayed. We have no idea what led to Thomas attacking the Svartalves. Justine has a lot of people watching her. Someone is leaking White Court secrets.

Justine is a better guess than any I've seen.

[Grifter]

If Justine doesn't have true love protection after GS, it's because their fundamental devotion to each other has shifted. BR was a decade before PT.

We're told Harry is going to be betrayed. We have no idea what led to Thomas attacking the Svartalves. Justine has a lot of people watching her. Someone is leaking White Court secrets.

Justine is a better guess than any I've seen.

Wasn't Justine providing intel on the Wamps to Harry a few books back?

[Bad Alias]

Harry remarked on it in Skin Game. Because we're reading books instead of investigating a real world incident, it stands to reason that we can figure everything out with the information provided. That means it's very likely that we know who is leaking from or spying on the White Court. Harry suggests the White Council, and that's entirely plausible. Who else do we know who could be doing it? Either Thomas or Justine. So we only have three options. If it was Thomas, why wasn't he trying to warn Harry that he needed help?

There are rules that govern good fiction, genre fiction, fiction I enjoy, fiction any particular person reading this post enjoys, etc. If we understand any or all of these sets of rules, we can make pretty good guesses.

Jim usually doesn't have things come from nowhere. Therefore, the leaker isn't coming from nowhere. We know whoever it is, or it's Harry's proffered explanation of "a wizard did it."

[Grifter]

Harry remarked on it in Skin Game. Because we're reading books instead of investigating a real world incident, it stands to reason that we can figure everything out with the information provided. That means it's very likely that we know who is leaking from or spying on the White Court. Harry suggests the White Council, and that's entirely plausible. Who else do we know who could be doing it? Either Thomas or Justine. So we only have three options. If it was Thomas, why wasn't he trying to warn Harry that he needed help?

There are rules that govern good fiction, genre fiction, fiction I enjoy, fiction any particular person reading this post enjoys, etc. If we understand any or all of these sets of rules, we can make pretty good guesses.

Jim usually doesn't have things come from nowhere. Therefore, the leaker isn't coming from nowhere. We know whoever it is, or it's Harry's proffered explanation of "a wizard did it."

So in PT, Lara thinks it must be a wizard of the council's caliber to have their spying method not discovered.  But that's also because she doesn't believe her people will betray her.  And the leak has only been occurring for a few weeks, overlapping Justine's pregnancy, which is only about 6 weeks in.

So possible culprits are Justine, Cowl, Kumori, Elaine, Thomas, Justin-not-ded, or Eb. Mostly in order from most to least likely.

But with Eb being so anti-vamp in this book, we can't discount him doing some spying.  I just can't see him violating the accords to the degree required to set Thomas up for the hit.